I just want to thank all of you that gave your thoughts and prayers in the loss of my sister in law, my wife's brothers wife! She passed from a heart attack with no prior warnings at the age of 60! So today, I say we all live without knowing when our last day will be on this earth! TO AWAKE EACH MORNING AND SEE DAYLITE IS A BLESSING! Some went to bed last night but didn't awake this morning!

We are blessed stroke survivors in that we are still alive and survived the stroke! I see many soldiers daily that has lost a leg, an arm or both right here almost daily when I visit with the wounder warriors here at Fort Hood Texas! They feel so badly for their friends fighting along side them that lost their lives in the war for our freedom here at home! They tell me they survived death and will learn to live with what they got left! I think I encourage them somewhat by living with one side paralysed from head to toe! They tell me I got both legs but still can't use one of them for like of the brain being affected too! We are all proud to just be alive!

All our members here at stroke net should feel proud to be survivors, it just wasn't our time to go! So turn lose of "Why am I like this" and be glad you survived the stroke and a second chance at life and living! We all must go some day so live a little with the way we are with a chance of getting better! We still got our right side or left side and a chance to still use it with therapy and exercise daily! So I say life is good to me because I got my cane, a scooter and I can still drive again!

Any person who lost a leg or arm has to be fitted with a prosthetic limb and learn to use it by still having the brain to control that side of the body! Sure they open the doors for me when I'm there because in reality I suffer more than they do by having brain damage from the stroke! So why be sad about something we have no control over? Why get depressed, why be angry or mad at the world? There are many aids to support our conditions these days like electric wheel chairs and scooters or a cane since we still have one side operating! We still have our family members and the pets still loves us too!

My granddaughter's puppy turned 5 months old Saturday, we left her in the pet hotel while we were out of town! They have cameras in each room where we could watch her on our computer all day until 10pm! That was worth paying for to us alone! She can now go down the stairs herself instead of me putting her in my lap to ride down in my stair chair! I don't know why dogs and some cats will go up but not come down by themselves! She always did go up but until yesterday wouldn't come down by herself! Right now she is in her usual sleep mode under my chair until she hears the garage door go up!

Again, as survivors and caregivers alike we need to practice living not complaining about what we can't do but what we are blessed in being able to do with what we have left! I figure I came a long way from the hospital bed to my own bedroom at home! I just don't know when I may have to be in a nursing home because my care giver can't care for me herself 24/7 should I require that kind of care! I want to live now because I don't know when that day may come or when my last day will come!

I think if we got out to see different people in different places still living with less help than we have doing things themselves without a care giver we could appreciate more how well we are doing! In our minds we have always had two hands, arms, legs and the given ability to do for ourselves! Now we consider ourselves a bit handicapped without being able to use both arms, legs or hands but we are not useless nor are we dead! THAT DAY WILL COME!

I'm not going to sit still and wait I'm going to live all I can with what I got left! I got one soldier friend here who is retiring that didn't want any prosthetic legs so he has opted to use a skate board and gloves on his hands to get about. Now he has had his truck fixed up complete with controls to operate it! He didn't have to pay a penny and will still get his full retirement! His home was also remodeled to accommodate him! I plan on having him over to my house one day soon so we can tell some war stories and a few lies to laugh about!

I'm hoping if you read this blog and are down on yourself for not being able to do things with both arms, legs or sides of your body then there is always someone with less than you got and are all smiles and praises to be alive! War is hell and so are strokes but to have survived is worth the experience!

Again I thank each of you for your thoughts and prayers in the passing of our sister in law from a heart attack! She never knew what hit her according to what her husband says! That brought me back to the morning my stroke happened and I didn't know what was happening and passed out! I could have died but my wife came home and found me passed out but still alive and I got to the hospital just in time to be saved! I can not complain about how I am now! I'm alive!